'Women's Voices Matter' forum urges activism

By Deb Boucher Stetson

Friday

Jun 29, 2018 at 10:31 AM

Speak up.

That was the overriding theme at a Women’s Voices Matter panel discussion in Barnstable.

“Good people can disagree, but we’ve gotten so far away from that -- people aren’t talking to each other, and they are staying in their silos,” observed Whitney Taylor, political director for ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) Massachusetts and one of two featured speakers at the June 21 forum hosted by Cape Cod Women for Change.

With dialogue, she said, “You start educating people and empowering people.”

Fellow panelist Gina Frank, legislative and political director for NARAL (National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League) Pro-Choice Massachusetts, urged people to contact their legislators on issues they are concerned about.

While it is important for citizens to advocate at the federal level, she said, it can be even more effective to contact officials closer to home.

“Your state reps, if they get more than 10 calls on an issue, they pay attention,” she said. “These people are making important decisions about our lives.”

Frank, whose organization advocates for reproductive health rights, pointed out that women make up roughly half the population of the United States.

“Reproductive health care is health care,” she said. “Ninety-nine percent of women will use some form of birth control in their lives. One in four women will have an abortion before they’re 45, and 65 percent of women who have abortions are mothers.”

She noted that the current political climate is disheartening for many people.

“Who here has felt powerless at some point in the last two years?” she asked, prompting a sea of raised hands. Although she often feels frustrated, she said, “The nice thing is I have seen in my work groups of people who have made things better for women in Massachusetts.”

The ACLU’s Taylor urged people to run for office, even if they don’t think they can win. When incumbents are challenged, she said, that starts a conversation that can prompt change.

This year, she said, all the district attorneys in Massachusetts are up for reelection and six of the 11 districts have challengers. “That has not happened since 1982,” she said.

Saying the country is in a “Constitutional crisis,” Taylor noted: “After Trump was elected, our membership quintupled in Massachusetts alone.”

Taylor emphasized that the ACLU is nonpartisan and does not endorse candidates, but is instead focused on rules and values that support a democracy.

NARAL is also nonpartisan but unlike the ACLU, it does endorse candidates, Frank said. She also urged people to become involved politically, even if it is knocking on doors to help inform and educate.

The issues her group is working on, she said, include accurate and fair sex education in schools and fighting what she called the federal “gag order” that bars medical facilities that receive government funding from counseling patients about abortion.

The event, held at the Unitarian Church of Barnstable, included a pre-panel networking session so attendees could meet and talk with representatives from a number of nonprofit organizations and a handful of political candidates and incumbents.

Among the groups represented were Hyannis Family Planning, Mothers Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Cape Cod Coalition for Safe Communities, and Indivisible.

An aide to state Sen. Julian Cyr was in attendance, as was Ron Bergstrom, who is running for Barnstable County commissioner; Paul Cusak, who is challenging state Rep. Will Crocker; and representatives for Jack Stanton, who is challenging state Rep. Randy Hunt.

Cape Cod Women for Change prepared a document of its “grades” and endorsements for Cape and Islands legislators for attendees to take home, along with “calls to action” and an invitation to visit its website, capecodwomenforchange.org, and join its Facebook page.

Organizer Janet Joakim, who co-founded Cape Cod Women for Change in 2015, said the group also has male members (and a number of men attended the event) but is focused on encouraging women to get involved and speak up.

“We strongly believe that women are going to make a difference,” Joakim said. “Use your voices.”

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